Tuesday, October 8, 2013

UCI Release Outline for Future of WorldTour

Reduced teams, races, race days proposed

The UCI have released a prospective document outlining a streamlined WorldTour to be enacted by 2020. The regular update to its Sport and Technical bulletin
released on Sunday featured a ground-breaking outline for reform of
international cycling that was quietly nestled between pages on
sustainability and the Tour de l'Avenir.

Titled ‘A decisive stage in the reform of professional cycling' the
third page of the bulletin goes on to identify a number of key changes
that "should lead to a profound and decisive change in the organisation of professional cycling." The reforms are set to be submitted to the UCI
Management committee and Professional Cycling Council for approval in
January 2014. If approved the changes will be enacted by 2015 and fully
in place by 2020.

A new WorldTour

Instead of the WorldTour, Professional Continental and Continental
system employed at current, the UCI is proposing a system with the
WorldTour split over two divisions that will still sit above the third
division comprised of Professional Continental and Continental teams.
Although there remain a number of issues in order to make this work
properly, the broad arrangement is outlined as follows:

• 16 Division 1 teams with 120 days of racing [down from 19 teams and 154 days of racing in 2013].
• 8 Division 2 teams with 50 days of racing.
• Division 3 to feature the Europe Tour, America Tour, Asia Tour, Africa Tour and Oceania Tour.
• All results across three divisions to be compiled into a single ranking system to serve as the basis for the nations' ranking.

A new calendar

Common complaints about the current WorldTour system centre around a
number of issues with the length of the season, the overlapping of
events and the strain this puts on teams seen as major hurdles. The
suggested reforms include a re-structuring of the international cycling
calendar in order to tackle these problems. The proposed changes are:

• The season will now run from February to October.
• Competition on every weekend, especially Sundays.
• No overlapping of events.
• No competition amongst first and second division events.
• Six weeks of uninterrupted competition focused on the spring classics.
• Stage races cut to five or six days.

Modernisation or homogenisation?

Although only provisional, and certain to be debated, analysed and
amended accordingly, the UCI's outline for reform of professional
cycling is already being said to be taking the sport from a romanticised
past-time steeped in heritage to something of a Formula One on
bicycles. Whether this is intended and whether it is to the liking of
current sponsors, riders and fans is yet to be seen.